SAVIOUR – Let Me Leave [REVIEW]

When you think of Australia, you mostly think of their eclectic musical background and how much they push themselves to be more known around the world. Stepping into the fray once again is the heavy melodic blend provided by Saviour whose new album ‘Let Me Leave’ will hopefully show off once again what is great about the Australian music scene.

Kicking off with ‘April’, the soft and entrancing side of the guitars flow through with Shontay Snow’s vocals provide such a great melody and tone to the record. The opener, vocals wise, has the veins of pop frontrunners like Lana Del Ray in its delivery, but the heavier side of the band isn’t under shadowed at all with the screams/rhythm guitar giving something that much more rounded, especially with the orchestral sounds in the background. The album title is repeated during the choruses with the clean/screams layered over the top producing something enjoyable with the drums heightening everything even more. It’s safe to say the band are pulling out all the stops, even going into ‘All I Am Is You’ with a powerful amount of production used that the post hardcore/metalcore blended influence is something awe-inspiring and encapsulates what this band are cementing themselves as.

‘The Quiet Calm’ carries on this album tradition and its safe to say they know what they are good at doing and are able to blend everything well, but after the first two tracks its hard to feel gripped into this song just as much as you are with the beginning. ‘Pressure And Composure’ somewhat pushes the level of excitement up a bit more with its guitar work and amazing melody work slithering in and out with the drums to create something magical. The downside of this track is the lyric ‘Stitches are for bitches man’ which downplays the rest of the track with its somewhat childish approach and reeks of something trying to be along the lines of when The Amity Affliction spout ‘Hey Death, Get Fucked’ within its gripping onto the fans brains.

The softer side of this band is what is so enjoyable about this record as it gives the band a chance to exert all of their knowledge of music and incorporate more reverberated sounds to add to the ambience of tracks such as ‘The Cool Calm’ and the closer ‘Little Birds’ which utilise all of their positive attributes into the record. The punchy, yet simple guitar work accompanied with the ever so captivating cleans being mixed with the emotional scream/spoken word elements that the record pushes through. The production is nothing to be sniffed at as from front to back, the entire record is pushed to its limit within sound, volume and mixing to create something superb to listen to.

Within your playback of the album, you will definitely find yourself being gripped to more tracks than others, whether it be the aggressive breakdown thrown in near the end of ‘The Low In Hello’ for a surprise notice or the anthem-like ‘Forget Me’ which would feel right at home at festivals all around the world with its substantial sound that is brought from the moment the track kicks in to the moment it closes. Another special track that should be mentioned is ‘Like This’ as the song goes on its own little path in some retrospect. The spoken word section provided by Bryant Best is undoubtedly gripping and the strong accent that protrudes from his voice will be enough to get you smiling.

Overall, Saviour have shown off something far from their 2013 record ‘First Light To My Death Bed’. They move away from the heavy sound that was very noticeable and could be attributed to other bands from the scene and made something that is undeniably more unique and stylised. Whilst it might take a few listens to fully appreciate the record, the band have made something that will no doubt open a few more doors for them and give everyone a taste of what is to come from the group.